Scents and lures have been used by hunters and trappers to aid them in attracting their quarry for thousands of years. In the past century, the manufacture and sale of lures, including scented lures, has become a commercial enterprise. More specifically, scented lures have become popular with hunters to attract deer or other game animals to a hunting site. Particularly, doe urine with estrus will attract a buck looking to mate. Since bucks are territorial, urine from another buck will attract a buck to protect its territory. There are many applications for the lures. For example, the scented lure is sprinkled on the ground.
Scented lures are generally urine based, and thus are in a liquid form. These conventional fresh liquid urine lures have a limited refrigerator life of approximately three months. Some manufacturers add preservatives to increase the shelf life of the product. However, then the product is no longer a natural product. Also, since the deer hunting season is normally limited to the fall, collection of the fresh deer urine is seasonal, due to the limited refrigerator life of the lure product. Collection of estrus urine and buck rut urine is limited to the breeding cycle of the deer. Thus, production of a scented lure using these special urines is even more limited in time. These liquid lures also present handling problems, both at the retail location and in the field. Another disadvantage of fresh liquid urine scent lures is the need to refrigerate the product, so as to retard bacterial growth, and thereby maintain product freshness. Freeze drying has been used in the medical industry for the preservation of drugs and serums.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of freeze dried scent lures for hunting or trapping.
Another object of the present invention is a method of making scent lures using a freeze drying process.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved scent lure which is freeze dried so as to produce a powdered product having a substantially unlimited shelf life.
Still another objective of the present invention is the provision of a freeze dried scent lure which is economical to manufacture and effective in use.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.